Population Data BC Research Ideas Workshop - April 22nd, 9 am to 11 am

SFU Burnaby Campus - Blusson Hall Board Room, 11021 (3^rd Floor), Faculty of Health Sciences

- Do you have research interests but not enough information about what administrative data might be available to address them?

- Are you interested in using administrative data for a research project, but need to know more about those data so you can refine your questions?

- Are you working toward applying for funding in the fall of 2010?

If you have answered “yes” to any of these questions, this 2-hour workshop may be of interest to you. This will be an informal opportunity to ask questions and brainstorm ideas about the use of the administrative data available through Population Data BC for research projects.  Take a look at our current data holdings: http://www.popdata.bc.ca/dataaccess/holdings

The workshop will be facilitated by Dr. Kim McGrail, a faculty member at UBC’s Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and a member of Population Data BC’s advisory board. Dr. McGrail will be available for one-on-one conversations after the workshop – book your meeting time now!

For more information or to register for the seminar and book a meeting with Dr. McGrail, email training@popdata.bc.ca - please indicate you are interested in the SFU Research Ideas Workshop.

Participants will learn the fundamental design and construction techniques used to create linkages between tabular health databases with geographic identifiers. The workshop will also review key data sources available to health researchers in British Columbia specifically designed for research in human health and well-being and discuss how these data might also be used for research using GIS. During the afternoon session, participants will have the opportunity to work with instructors creating health data maps in a GIS and engaging in group discussion as to possible usages of GIS for exploring the spatial pattern of disease and health outcomes. Upon completion of this workshop, participants will have gained familiarity with GIS and its strengths for research into human health and well-being as well as information pertaining to the access and availability of data for health-related research in British Columbia.

Instructor

Nathanial J. Bell, PhD Candidate, Simon Fraser University

Prerequisite

Attendees should have working knowledge of the Excel and/or Access platforms of the Microsoft Office Suite.

Audience

People working with health data that have no experience using GIS but would like to learn how it can be applied in their research.

Day one of the workshop focused on spatial analysis of disease data in a GIS environment, spatial statistics, and analysis scenarios for cluster analysis and cluster detection. Topics covered included detection of clustering of disease in historical disease data, focused cluster analysis, and spatial cluster detection. Day two of the workshop covered prospective space-time disease analysis and surveillance. A combined format of lectures, software demonstrations, and hands-on exercises were used to provide a balance of theoretical understanding and practical skills development. Upon completion of this workshop, participants were able describe statistical concepts underlying disease surveillance methods, summarize theoretical and operational issues involved in the use of space-time disease surveillance methods in a variety of analytic scenarios, and perform, parameterize, and interpret, space-time disease surveillance analysis using SaTScan software.

Instructors

Colin Robertson, PhD Candidate, University of Victoria.
Dr. Ying MacNab, Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC
Dr. Andrew Lawson, Professor, The Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.

Prerequisite
Attendees should have knowledge of basic statistics.

Audience
This workshop was targeted to health geomatics professionals, public health workers, researchers, and epidemiologists.

		

July 27th and July 28th
Particular emphasis was placed on environmental exposure assessment. Presentations were integrated with working examples in ESRI ArcGIS, whenever possible, to provide hands on experience and opportunities to apply theoretical concepts. Participants learned about spatial health data and area socio-economic data available in BC, spatial exposure assessment methods, analytical approaches, and limitations of spatial epidemiology.

July 29th
The RIF is an extension to ESRI ArcGIS for rapid analysis of routinely collected health and population data. The RIF can be used for risk analysis and disease mapping. For more information or to download RIF go to: http://www.sahsu.org/related_studies.php#RIF

Prerequisite - Participants are required to have a working knowledge of ESRI ArcGIS and basic statistical regression techniques to conduct in class exercises on the 27th and 28th.

Instructors

Perry Hystad, PhD Candidate, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia

Dr. Linda Beale, Research Fellow, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College of London

Audience - Health researchers with some experience using GIS and who would like to expand their knowledge of spatial epidemiology.

This workshop will also provide an overview of the access policy / application process at Population Data BC. Upon completion of this workshop, participants will have detailed information on working with administrative data, opportunities and challenges, and the resources available to help them understand and analyze the data.

Instructor - Dr. Kimberlyn McGrail, Faculty, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and Assistant Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC

download presentation

Prerequisite - None

Audience - Students, principal investigators and research analysts who are now or are thinking about using administrative data for their research.